April 17, 2014

Updates from vice president for administration and finance

In March, the Kansas Board of Regents approved the conversion of K-State's classified staff to university support staff effective at the beginning of FY 2015. One of our first priorities in transitioning to the university support staff system is to create a Board of Appeals, to replace the current process that allows for appeals to the State Civil Service Board. The Board of Appeals will be responsible for hearing employee appeals of disciplinary actions for suspensions, demotions and dismissals. It will comprise university support staff, unclassified personnel and faculty who are interested in participating.

We are soliciting employees to serve on the Board of Appeals, so if you have an interest in serving on this very important board, please send your name and contact information by April 30 to Susan Thomas in my office at 785-532-6226 or email Susan at lasal@k-state.edu. Terms of service will most likely be for a period of three years, but initial terms may be shorter. Training for the board members will be provided by the Division of Human Resources in the next few months. The board will initially report to the vice president for administration and finance until the new vice president of human capital services is hired and then a decision will be made for future reporting.

You may recall in an earlier K-State Today article we reported that an across-the-board increase of 2 percent has been approved by President Schulz for all university support staff employees effective with the first pay period of FY 2015. We also are happy to report that the longevity program will continue with a few changes effective in FY 2015, and the annual bonus amount will be increased from $40 to $50 per year. So, if an employee has been working for the university for a minimum of 10 years, they are eligible for a bonus in the amount of $50 per year multiplied for the minimum of 10 years — $500 — with a maximum of 25 years — $1,250. All university support staff employees will be eligible for this payment, even those who were rehired after June 14, 2008. We are working to develop a new name for this program to distinguish it from the state's program.

One final topic I would like to address is for faculty appointed on a nine-month contract and interested in being paid over 12 months. Unfortunately we are not able to change our programming within the payroll system to accommodate this request but we do want to make faculty and personnel specialists aware of an alternative solution. The employee self-service direct deposit module includes the functionality for employees to split out their pay checks and make direct deposits in up to nine different bank accounts. Employees can manage their own savings and determine how much money to transfer from their pay checks to savings each pay period. The amount saved will then be available when it is needed. The Division of Human Resources is developing an online training session to demonstrate this feature for our employees. If you have any questions regarding this issue or training, please contact Julie Henton in the payroll office at 785-532-6277 or jkhenton@k-state.edu.

Please don't hesitate to contact me regarding any of these issues or other topics you would like to discuss at 785-532-6226 or cab@k-state.edu. Have a great day!